The set features some very interesting unreleased music, but also a bunch of dialogue tracks that few fans will listen to more than once.
On disc one and two we get the tracks from the original double album. This is great since it has been out of print for a long time and has not been available for streaming either. The original album has a somewhat thin sound but this new remastered issue sounds a lot better. The instruments are better separated and both the rock songs and the orchestral parts has more bottom and richer sound.
Then there are several demos of 200 Motels songs and songs for Chunga's Revenge. The most interesting one being on of the versions of "What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning". It has a rare musical intro that was left off the officially released song. Could have been the theme of a talk show. Keyboardist George Duke on trombone here. Check that out!
And for you who lingered for a while when reading "one of the versions", yes there are quite some repetition. There are multiple versions on some of the songs. In some cases interesting. In other cases the differences are not very obvious.
And for you who lingered for a while when reading "one of the versions", yes there are quite some repetition. There are multiple versions on some of the songs. In some cases interesting. In other cases the differences are not very obvious.
Another segement that belongs to the highlights is "What's The Name Of Your Group?" A short piece of this one can be heard on the Remington Electric Razor bootleg and on a 2015 Record Store Day 7".
It is a piece featuring the The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a female classical vocalist. Beautiful!
It includes the theme of "A Pound For A Brown On A Bus", a theme that Zappa often returned to after it was first released on Uncle Meat in 1969.
It is a piece featuring the The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a female classical vocalist. Beautiful!
It includes the theme of "A Pound For A Brown On A Bus", a theme that Zappa often returned to after it was first released on Uncle Meat in 1969.
A newer version of "What's The Name Of Your Group?"is also included on the CD 200 Motels – The Suites by conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and Los Angeles Philharmonic (recorded in 2013, released in 2015).
On the new 200 Motels set there are also versions of orchestral music from the original release but without the dialogue overdubs. Nice!
If you want to dive deeper into the details of this release we can highly recommend the ZappaCast Podcast where Joe Travers, Zappa's vaultmeister, and others talk about it.
ZappaCast, December 10, 2021
ZappaCast, December 10, 2021
